The economy continues to fire on all pistons, and life insurance is no exception.
Total new individual life premium grew 8 percent in the third quarter of 2015 in the U.S., reported LIMRA, marking the fifth straight quarter of growth. Year to date, the sector has grown 7 percent.
Total policies sold were up 4 percent for the quarter and 5 percent year to date, LIMRA said. Meanwhile, total universal life new annualized premium fared even better, up 11 percent in the quarter and 10 percent so far this fiscal year.
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LIMRA's data showed that the growth was largely driven by sales of indexed UL new annualized premium. That was up 20 percent in the quarter and 19 percent year to date.
"IUL now represents 54 percent of UL and 21 percent of all individual life premium sold during the first three quarters of the year," LIMRA said in a release.
Other data from the release:
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Total UL premium represented 38 percent of all life sales in the first nine months of 2015.
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Variable universal life (VUL) new annualized premium growth grew 2 percent in the third quarter and 1 percent year-to-date. VUL's market share was 7 percent of total sales year-to-date.
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Whole life (WL) new annualized premium increased 9 percent in the third quarter and 10 year-to-date. WL now represents 34 percent of the total life market.
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Term new annualized premium increased 2 percent in the third quarter, representing the fourth consecutive quarter of positive growth. Term premium rose 1 percent year to date.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
